Spain’s banks need €59.3bnin capital to survive crisis

Spanish banks will need a total of €59.3bn in extra capital to ride out a serious economic downturn, an independent report said yesterday, removing a major obstacle in the way of an international bailout for Madrid.

Spain said around €40bn of the total will come as European aid while the rest could be raised by the banks themselves.

The audit, carried out by consultant Oliver Wyman, is a condition of getting European funds to patch up Spanish banks damaged by a prolonged property crash, and identifies which banks need more capital and precisely how much each requires.